Importance of job design

Why is job design so important for companies? For one, the process clearly specifies the contents, methods, and relationships of jobs in the organisation. It also satisfies organisational requirements in many processes that vary from recruitment to an employee's career development.

Managing an organisation in a complex and competitive environment becomes a real challenge and calls for effective use of a HR planning system. Job analysis calls on executives to identify key performance/results in a systematic way.

In some companies, the present system of family management crushes intrinsic motivation. Once, a managing director asked a quality consultant why his company needs job descriptions while there is a manual available on work instructions as per the ISO procedure.

He thought people were hired for doing a variety of tasks. He believed that people needed instructions to follow. He considered himself the process owner because the company belonged to him. He used to tell managers that employees were paid to do certain tasks assigned by the management. His behaviour indicated the autocratic way of thinking and, of course, killed creativity and staff initiative.

A job description deals with accountability and knowhow, whereas work instructions are mere activities which describe how specific tasks are meant to be performed. It is not necessary that companies should have a work instruction manual. For instance, a software developer does not require one.

Irrespective of the nature of business, however, every company should have job description documents. These serve as an input to the need of manpower planning, recruitment, compensation, and career development. It is a building block to organisation development and entails developing greater individual planning, decision-making and control into key performance areas.

To understand a business activity, you need not spend lot of time. Everything about the job, role and person is available in a two-page document - job description. Companies use role analysis questionnaires to help managers identify ways to improve the capability of workers.

A standard format used in a process industry asks these questions: What are the most time-consuming parts of your job? Estimate the percentage of time required and rank the order of importance.

What impediments add to the time needed to do your job? What activities could be expanded, eliminated or otherwise changed? Do others in the company perform activities that duplicate what you do?

What does your department do? What actions would remove duplications? If you want to add value to the company, what should your job content be? As a result of role analysis by managers and jobholders, work may be reassigned or restructured.

It is important to clarify working relationships. For instance, by using a thorough analysis you can spin out non-core activities to avoid fragmenting resources. Writing a good job description is often a challenging task. Before designing a job, diagnosis has to be done on internal work motivation and performance quality.

There are various approaches to a job design. While the classical approach focusses on standardisation, a new approach has emerged. This advocates designing jobs to fit competent people who contribute to profitability.

While the classical approach emphasised efficiency and the application of engineering knowhow, the behavioral approach promotes individual growth and organisational development.
Job enlargement and enrichment are the concepts associated with behavioural approach, and are gaining momentum because it maintains internal motivation.

Job enlargement refers to adding tasks to a job. For instance, a salesman can be asked to deliver goods at customer points as well as attend customer complaints. As for job enrichment, it is the deliberate restructuring of a job to make it more challenging, meaningful, and interesting. In an enriched job, the individual may be responsible for organising, planning, and controlling his work, and not just carrying it out.

Well-designed jobs bring beneficial effects like motivation and organisational commitment. Clearly, an organisation stands to gain.

Pon Mohaideen Pitchai is a Dubai-based human resources consultant.